Adventures in Domesticity
by Wren Maxwell
Summary: Some blurby fills for the FOWC on livejournal. Prompts Wash/Taylor - Bump & Wife, Reilly/Curran - Father and Skye/Carter - Intrigued
1. Bump

She'd tried everything.

She'd tried sucking it in, doing squats to stretch the material, laying flat on the bed but the pants wouldn't zip. She blew out an exasperated sigh as she flopped back on the bed, finally surrendering. The Bump would no longer fit into anything but her damn sweatpants and she refused to wear those to the weekly meeting.

It wasn't widespread knowledge just yet, but she figured walking through Terra Nova in sweats was like to make an announcement. Then there would be congratulations and probably gifts and possibly even hugs. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate a hug every once in a while, but she felt there was a time and a place.

She threw a cross look at the doorway when she felt smug satisfaction radiating at her. Nathaniel was grinning at her. "Having issues?"

She glared harder.

"There's a baby in there," he said knowingly, pointing at her stomach.

Her composure cracked and she finally rolled her eyes at him.

Seeing that she wasn't too upset Nathaniel abandoned his better judgment and made what would have been an entirely reasonable suggestion under other circumstances (or perhaps given better wording.) "Well if you're getting too big for yours I can loan you a pair of mine until-" her wadded up pants hit him in the face.

Staring startled at the red-faced woman on his bed he seemed to realize his mistake. "Now Wash, when I said 'big' I didn't mean-" The combat boot wasn't nearly as soft as the pants had been.

When they walked into Command thirty minutes later Jim couldn't help but snicker at the content look on Wash's face as she strolled in wearing a pair of fatigues that were heavily cuffed at the bottom and Taylor hesitantly followed, watching his mate warily, and rubbing a small purple mark on his forehead.

Hormones were a bitch.


	2. Father

"Well, the good news is I don't have some sort of new jungle fever. The other news is that you are going to be a father."

He blinked once, twice, then crashed face first at her feet.

"Really?" she asked incredulously. She looked at Elisabeth for support.

The doctor was trying to maintain her professionalism, but the quiver of her lips was giving her away. "I think he took that rather well…?" smile leaking into her voice.

Reilly blew out a sigh and considered the man at her feet. "If you don't mind me asking, how did your husband take it when you told him you were pregnant?"

Elisabeth thought back to the first time she had to tell Jim. "Well, there was a moment of disbelief, then I remember lot of excited spinning and then there may have been some vomit… so all in all I think this could have been worse."

Reilly toed her unconscious fiancée onto his back before checking to make sure his nose was still intact. "I still think I'll wait until after the wedding to tell him the rest. If he reacts this poorly to the idea of 'baby' he is gonna have a brain aneurism at the word 'twins.'"


	3. Intrigued

Carter was looking for Skye. He wasn't sure what his excuse was going to be tonight for showing up at her and her friends unit. He tended to be more of a late night visitor per Skye's request. Hell, half the time he showed up at her window rather than the front door. It wasn't classy, but it was… discreet. He was getting pretty sick of it actually, and from the sly look as Tasha answered the door this evening, he had a feeling everyone knew exactly what he and Skye had been up to.

"I'm looking for Skye."

"'Course you are," she replied with a smirk, eyeing him up and down as she continued to block the doorway.

He stood there awkwardly when she said nothing else. "Is she here?"

Tasha looked over her shoulder and turned back to him with a grin. "Kitchen," she said, pointing as she moved out of the way.

Carter slipped past and followed her gesture towards the kitchen. He was intrigued by what he found.

Skye was cleaning up from dinner and listening to music on headphones. He could tell she was listening to music because she was singing along and dancing as she did the dishes. There were soap suds up to her elbows and a big smile on her face as her bare feet tapped to the beat.

He'd never seen her like this before. He'd seen fierce when she was defending the colony, angry when she was dealing with Mira, frustrated when she used to deal with him. He'd seen sad, wistful, frightened and dishonest. Recently he's seen thoughtful and something he hoped she would describe as euphoric, but he didn't think he'd ever really seen her happy. But in this one moment of innocence, Skye looked happy. As her hips swayed to the beat and she sang out the words it was like all her cares just melted away.

He forgot why he was there as he leaned in the doorway to enjoy the show.


	4. Wife

At first she had found it thrilling and endearing. Then it was mildly amusing, followed by slightly annoying and ended in downright irritating. If he didn't stop calling her 'wife' she was going to have to hurt him. 'The wife said this' and 'my wife did that,' 'Hello Wife, how was patrol?' Really? What was this? The 20th century?

She'd been steaming about it when she went to check on one of her newbies in the infirmary, and Liz had immediately decided to help her with a solution. And so it was that she was waiting at home for Nathaniel one day when his shift ended.

It was her 'day off' and she had left the house even before he did that morning and he hadn't seen hide nor hair of her all day. If he thought that was odd it was only going to get worse.

When he got home that night it was to the wonderful smell of food emanating from their unit. Walking in he noticed the table set for two with an actual tablecloth and candles. Considering that both of them were what you might call 'domestically challenged' this was… unusual. He racked his brain to figure out if today was a special occasion that he had forgot about. He didn't think it was, but the dining room spoke otherwise. He could hear movement in the kitchen and headed that way. "Wash?"

The sight that greeted him stopped him in his tracks.

"Oh darling! I'm so glad you're home! Dinner just came out of the oven." The stranger in the kitchen said, smiling at him.

He was fairly certain that is was Wash, but as she walked up to him, gave him a kiss on the cheek, handed him a small tumbler of whiskey and shooed him back to the dining room he thought perhaps it was an imposter.

"Wash?" he mumbled again, bemused as he took in her appearance. Shiny red heels, a gray pencil skirt with a small white apron and a white button down blouse. She was also wearing the freshwater pearl necklace that Elisabeth, Maddy and Skye had made her as a wedding gift and she had forgone the normal dark eye makeup in favor of something softer that worked well with her upswept hairdo.

She cocked her head and gave him a concerned look. "Honey, you've had a long day, why don't you go sit down and I'll bring you your dinner."

Taylor was at a loss for words as she ushered him to the table and made him sit. This couldn't be real. He looked from his untouched drink to the smiling homemaker next to him in disbelief. She patted his cheek fondly and headed back to the kitchen, leaving him confounded.

As Alicia returned to the safety of the kitchen she burst into silent laughter. Poor man didn't have a clue what was going on. Well, considering that was what got him into this mess, she felt he deserved it. She pulled the pot roast (that Maddy had kindly helped her make) from the oven and gathered up the mashed potatoes as well and composed herself before heading back out to the table.

Nathaniel looked like he finally had something to say. "Wash, what the hell is going on? What is all this?" he asked, gesturing to the table and her.

"Darling," she said, brow furrowing in worry as she came to crouch next to his chair, "what kind of wife would I be if I didn't make my husband dinner?" The genuine distress in her voice causing him to be even more worried about the situation. He stared blankly at her for a few more moments, unsure of what to say and desperately wondering if she had received a head wound that day, when her façade started to crack.

It started with a twinkling humor in her eyes and was followed but a brief tension in her cheeks before the laughter erupted. "Well that look is absolutely priceless. I really should have listened to Elisabeth when she said I should record this whole thing for posterity."

Taylor couldn't decide if he wanted to be angry or embarrassed by the whole thing. He had just sat there like a fool as she fluttered around him. He went with embarrassed as he felt his blood pressure rise and his face get red. "Wash, was there a particular reason you felt I needed to be on the receiving end of this particular stunt? And where did you even get that shirt?" He was started to get distracted by the fact that he could see right down into her cleavage in that blouse.

Wash looked down at the too tight shirt she had borrowed and smirked, glad it was working to her advantage. "Well, first of all, this is payback for all of this constant 'wife' nonsense," she paused and raised her brow at him, letting that sink in, "and secondly, none of your business." She stood and leaned a hip against the table, crossing her arms in the usual Wash fashion.

Nathaniel looked truly thoughtful for a moment. "You… don't like being my wife?"

Her lips pursed and she gave him one of her 'looks.'

"So, you do like being my wife… but you don't like me saying it?" he tried.

She let out a small sigh. "Its not that I mind you saying it. Its just the tone and frequency that are really starting to grate. We know Nathaniel. I know, the colony knows, I'm sure even the dinosaurs are fully aware at this point. The problem is that I am still me. I'm Alicia, the woman you love. I'm Lt. Washington to the soldiers, and you constantly referring to me as 'wife' is undermining all of that. I love you dearly, but if you don't stop this possessive name game I'm afraid you are going to be sleeping on the couch for the duration… sir."

After another thoughtful pause Nathaniel finally replied. "I think I see where you are coming from. Maddy's rather… enthusiastic treatment of Reynolds earns him some teasing from the rest of the troops. I suppose me calling you 'wife' all the time is getting you something of the same."

Alicia sighed in relief. "You have no idea. If I have to listen to Jim imitate you one more time I might have to find a reason to deliver him to his wife while she's on duty."

"He imitates me?"

"Oh, very convincingly," she said, leaning down to kiss him.

"I think he and I need to have a chat," he breathed against her neck as he stood and pinned her against the table.

"Mmmm… later," she mumbled as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him again.

Taylor pulled back and looked down at her again speculatively. "Since I found you in such a domestic mood, why don't we move this to the bedroom…"

"You don't want to have dinner first?" she asked innocently.

"It'll keep," he growled, nipping her neck. Stepping back he headed for the bedroom, pausing to look at her over his shoulder from the doorway. "Darling?" he smirked devilishly, "Leave the necklace and the heels on."


End file.
